"I saw his brother, with red glowing eyes. I saw him biting Selene. And I saw…"
"You saw what?" Harlan interrupted, eyes blazing with anger, his voice eerily quiet.
"Do you have any idea how much of a privacy invasion that is?" He took a few steps forward but was stopped by Callum as he placed his arm in front of him.
"How did you see that? I have been by your side for the last few days. You haven't woken up," he said, confused and blushing a bit. He went into a deep pensive mode.
"Unless..." He grabbed my hand and closed his eyes.
"Interesting."
"What?" Harlan and I said at the same time.
"I have never seen this before," he said as he opened his eyes, not letting go of my hand.
"Very curious." I just stared at him, dumbfounded. How was he seeing anything with his eyes closed?
"What?" Harlan said, annoyed.
"I don't know how to explain this. Are there witches in your lineage?" he asked, completely serious.
I snorted.
"No. Do have a couple of gremlins though," I responded, believing he was joking.
Callum laughed.
"Everybody knows gremlins aren't real." And witches are?
"But good one."
"You better have a really good explanation for why I am not beating her ass over being a pervert," Harlan said, ruining whatever was happening.
"Her soul separated from her body," he said, as if it was the most normal thing ever.
"Nope. I am not doing this," I said as I flung my leg out to the ground. The sound of the cast hitting the wood floors was almost deafening. Both Callum and Harlan hissed, but I continued.
"I refuse to believe any of this." This was the last straw. Witches? Werewolves? Separated souls? I was done. I needed to go home. This was too much.
"Here we go," Harlan said, crossing his arms.
"What do you mean? You haven't met me before. You have no idea what is about to happen." All the emotion and fear from everything that had happened hit me all at once.
"These last few days have been the worst of my life. I was bitten, attacked, possibly raped, and left to die in the middle of the woods. Only to then be rescued and attacked again. I have no recollection of the last week, and I'm beginning to think I'm losing my mind." I finally let out. The pressure that had been building exploded like a tsunami of words, calming the fire in me.
Only the fire doesn't go out. It burns me. It is burning me. And before I know it, Callum comes over and whispers a few words in a language I don't understand. I feel like I am about to have a panic attack.
"You need to breathe." Callum strokes my hair.
"If you don't, you might turn before time, and that might be fatal."
I have no idea what he's saying. Turn? God, it is so frustrating not knowing what is going on.
"But you do know." Harlan's voice was deep and commanding.
"You do know. You just don't want to accept it, because it doesn't make sense to you." His eyes start glowing with that familiar golden flare I had seen before.
"I'm done with this. With you."
"Harlan," Callum warns, still holding on to me.
"I can't stand you all treating her like a child," he bellowed.
"If she can't deal with it now, she's never going to be able to. Guess what? Your life's awful now? It's going to get harder." He starts getting closer, the color in his eyes only shining brighter and brighter.
"You were bitten by a werewolf. One of us. You had the bad luck of surviving, which means your life is going to be a living hell from now on."
"No." I try to cover my ears as if that would prevent the truth from completely destroying my view of the world, sobbing uncontrollably as I held on to Callum.
"You are turning into a wolf every full moon, and the need to kill will overwhelm you. You will be filled with aggression and will want to rip a human's throat out every time one of them cuts in front of you in line." He smiles, as if seeing me in pain makes him feel better.
"You'll be a half-ling, not even a full werewolf, which will make your wolf side and human side fight constantly until you've lost your mind," he said, his tone now grim.
"You can think I'm insane. You can keep trying to convince yourself this is not happening, but it is. So you either deal with it or kill yourself now before I have to." He turned around, feeling completely indifferent to my tears and heartache.
"The only way to survive this is to deal with it," was all he said before he exited the room.
Callum held on to me like he was trying to comfort a screaming child. He tried to get me together while my whole world was crumbling around me. He didn't say a word, waiting for me to speak first.
After a while, I said, "Is it true?"
"It wasn't Harlan's place to talk to you about it, much less do it the way he did," he said calmly.
"Is it true?" I asked again, my dried tears making my face feel stiff.
Callum took a deep breath before saying, "Yes, it is." Just when I was about to lose myself, he spoke again.
"But there is a way you can save yourself. An exception to every rule," he said.
"What is it?"
"You need your mate's mark to become whole again." I lifted my head from his shoulders so he could see my confused look.
"If your mate marks you before the next eclipse, you can become one of us."